Apollo's star player returns, but Greenway still No. 1
January 22, 2013 by Jose Garcia, AZPreps365
Something was missing. Even Glendale Apollo boys soccer coach Dan Benford couldn’t put his finger on it.
Apollo had plenty of good reasons to put on a good show Tuesday night, when it faced the top-ranked team in the Division II aia365/MaxPreps rankings, Phoenix Greenway. Apollo, ranked No. 24, needed to win out to likely snare a playoff seed.
And one of last year’s soccer stars, Apollo junior Eric Carbajal, made his 2012-13 season debut Tuesday after leaving an elite youth academy in Mexico. But the real story turned out to be the continued emergence of Greenway under veteran Valley coach Kenny Laird.
Greenway’s experienced team remained unbeaten (11-0) in the rankings with a 2-1 home win over Apollo, keeping Greenway as a top seed in the final week of soccer’s regular season.
“We are afraid of it (No. 1 ranking) every day,” Laird said.
But on Tuesday, Laird’s boys didn’t flinch even after Apollo tied the game at 1 after a quick restart off a free kick in the first half.
Laird knows he’s got a target on his back, but he’s also aware that his team won’t be the favorite when the state brackets are announced on Friday. Tucson Salpointe, the defending D-II champ, is still the team to beat.
But Greenway is one of the teams that can unseat the favorite. Forwards Mark Dogbha and Josh Marquez are a force up front for Greenway.
The speedy and strong Dogbha helped set up Marquez’s first goal after sending a cross from the left flank. Marquez used his chest to redirect the ball to the back of Apollo’s net in the 5th minute.
For his second goal, Marquez headed the ball in after receiving a corner kick in the 39th minute.
“Greenway played tough,” Benford said. “You could see how bad they wanted to beat us, and they did.”
As for Apollo, it, at times, lacked the desperation teams sometimes show when they are fighting for a playoff spot.
Plus, Carbajal had only practiced once with Apollo prior to Tuesday’s game. The creativity to set up scoring chances and pace Carbajal displayed last year as a sophomore weren’t present on Tuesday.
